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3 Sell-Rated Dividend Stocks

VOC Energy (NYSE:
VOC) shares currently have a dividend yield of 7.50%.

VOC Energy Trust owns a term net profits interest of the net proceeds from production of the interests in oil and natural gas properties in the states of Kansas and Texas. It owns an 80% term net profits interest of the net proceeds on the underlying properties.

The average volume for VOC Energy has been 80,400 shares per day over the past 30 days. VOC Energy has a market cap of $237.2 million and is part of the energy industry. Shares are up 12.5% year to date as of the close of trading on Monday.

TheStreet Ratings rates VOC Energy as a
sell. The company's weaknesses can be seen in multiple areas, such as its unimpressive growth in net income, generally disappointing historical performance in the stock itself and feeble growth in its earnings per share.

Highlights from the ratings report include:

The company, on the basis of change in net income from the same quarter one year ago, has underperformed when compared to that of the S&P 500 and greatly underperformed compared to the Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels industry average. The net income has decreased by 17.9% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, dropping from $9.52 million to $7.82 million.

Looking at the price performance of VOC's shares over the past 12 months, there is not much good news to report: the stock is down 39.47%, and it has underformed the S&P 500 Index. In addition, the company's earnings per share are lower today than the year-earlier quarter. Naturally, the overall market trend is bound to be a significant factor. However, in one sense, the stock's sharp decline last year is a positive for future investors, making it cheaper (in proportion to its earnings over the past year) than most other stocks in its industry. But due to other concerns, we feel the stock is still not a good buy right now.

VOC ENERGY TRUST's earnings per share declined by 17.9% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. This company has reported somewhat volatile earnings recently. We feel it is likely to report a decline in earnings in the coming year. During the past fiscal year, VOC ENERGY TRUST increased its bottom line by earning $2.19 versus $1.42 in the prior year. For the next year, the market is expecting a contraction of 8.2% in earnings ($2.01 versus $2.19).

VOC, with its decline in revenue, underperformed when compared the industry average of 1.3%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues fell by 17.6%. The declining revenue appears to have seeped down to the company's bottom line, decreasing earnings per share.

The gross profit margin for VOC ENERGY TRUST is currently very high, coming in at 100.00%. VOC has managed to maintain the strong profit margin since the same quarter of last year. Despite the mixed results of the gross profit margin, VOC's net profit margin of 97.68% significantly outperformed against the industry.

Editor's Note: TheStreet ratings do not represent the views of TheStreet's staff or its contributors. Ratings are established by computer based on metrics for performance (which includes growth, stock performance, efficiency and valuation) and risk (volatility and solvency). Companies with poor cash flow or high debt levels tend to earn lower ratings in our model.